|
|
Acuva ArrowMAX 2.0 Water Treatment System by Acuva Technologies Inc. Burnaby, Canada  Acuva Arrowmax 2.0 Smart Faucet shown at right. Summary Being based in Canada, we were not searching for cleaner water. This topic was never really on our radar until recently. When building out our Non-RV pilot project, off-grid trailer, the factoring in of a water filter, was at the bottom of the priority pile. Upon reading a few posts about bad drinking water in certain areas, even within North America, we thought that this is something we should deal with. I began researching the various in-line filters for the RV industry, those that eliminate bad taste, and some chemicals, and profess clean water without the science, or evident science that goes with it. Lo and behold, I came across Acuva Technologies and found the ArrowMAX 2.0 UV Water Treatment System. It's a single point-of-use system for under the sink. Their website claims "easy installation" and can be powered with either 120-240V AC or 12V DC. It boasts a flow rate of 2 Litres per minute and comes with a range of NSF/ANSI certifications specific to both the UV unit and the Pre-filter that came with our package.  Box holding the various components neatly packaged.  Laid out tubing, flow restrictor, Smart faucet in Satin Stainless with fastening nut at the top left, "Tee" fitting, 12 volt power cable connector, Din Rail for hanging the unit and Pre-Filter wall brackets.  Acuva Arrowmax 2.0 UV Unit with 120V AC plug adapter (if required)  Acuva Advanced Pre-Filter. Installation The unit came nicely packaged with all the bits required to perform a complete installation, including, hose, connectors, power adapters, wall mounting rail, etc. The instructions were clear and reference diagrams were easy to understand. The Tee ball valve was designed as a push-to-connect fitting to be installed into an existing 1/2" Pex water line. Our specific configuration required a different fitting which needed to connect to 3/8" compression fittings with the same 1/4 fitting going to the unit as supplied with the kit. Lucky for us, the local Home Depot had just the fitting. The rest of the system's water connections supplied were push-to-connect type, of which I am not a fan but elected to use them for this installation. The installation went very smoothly, ample 1/4" tubing was supplied for our use and everything went together like clockwork. It took roughly a couple of hours, taking time to have coffee and ponder the world situation intermittently. I tapped into an existing 12 Volt power circuit that had ample amperage capabilities and could be switched from our 12V distribution panel, back in the garage of our Non-RV. I also added an in-line 3Amp slow blow fuse on the positive side as recommended. The 12V power lead had a quite soft casing on it that was difficult to trim back without cutting into the power leads, which it was designed to protect. Being quite used to heavy duty tinned Boat Wire with flexible and robust casing, I found this to be not up to the electrical standard that I am used to. I was a little concerned when I used heat shrink crimped connections, but it worked fine. That would be the only bit of hardware, I would improve. The only real struggle was getting a wrench onto the threaded stem below the faucet. Ours is an extra deep sink, so the swing room for any open-ended wrench is very limited. After Installation...The unit powered up right away, there were no water leaks...all good. The only adjustment I had to perform was on our ShurFlo water pump. We had to adjust the flow (Allen screw on the pump slightly clockwise) of the water pump so it wouldn't oscillate at the 2L per minute low flow rate.  The Verdict We haven't used the ArrowMAX 2.0 for very long at the time of this post, so longevity would not be considered here. The ArrowMAX 2.0 system seems very well thought out, both with its UV purification capabilities and the added pre-filter (our was the Advanced). The Installation was straight forward, and the filtration works smoothly with a 2.0 Litre per minute water flow rate. which is actually quite fast. The blue LED at the base of the beautiful Stainless Smart Faucet glows nicely when the filtration is working. This filter has a NSI/ANSI Certification 55 Class "B", which is specific for UV type filters and is meant for filtration of Municipal water that has been deemed fit for human consumption. In other words, if you are planning to use lake or stream water, then a suitable pre-filtration system would be needed to make your water pure. The UV unit glows Blue when its working fine, Green when it's performing a maintenance cycle, Yellow when there is an electrical fault and Red when there is a system error. All in all quite smart. Here's our take so far. Our ratings: Installation . . . . . . . . . 4.7 Filtration . . . . . . . . . . 4.9 Hardware Quality . . . . . . 4.5 Cost Competitiveness . . . . 4.2 Space requirements . . . . . 4.7 Customer Support. . . . . . 4.9 
|
G. Gregory
Inventor, Designer, Archives
May 2024
Categories |
||
